All the photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58323617@N08/sets/72157636935933824/ This ride is a San Francisco Randonneurs 200k permanent​ that takes the rider from San Francisco to Soquel along the coast highway, then North over the hill to Los Gatos and ending in Mountain View​. The weather was cool and overcast but otherwise quite nice; the tailwind from Pescadero to Santa Cruz was a real treat and sure bumped up our average speed.​ While I probably won't opt for this permanent again in the future, we did have a great time on the ride. ​The route is nice if you are comfortable with riding in traffic. I am, but I'm used to city driving where my speed is much closer to the car traffic speed. So, climbs on coast highway and, especially, on the Soquel San Jose Road started grating on my nerves with their very small shoulders and cars and trucks wizzing close by. It was nice to crest the summit and drop down the other side on smaller windy country roads like those that have spoiled me in Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Of course, the coast is always beautiful in my opinion and what better way to enjoy it than on a bike.​ Highlights included riding through the new Pacifica-Montara tunnel, which was oh-so-smooth, warm, had a wide shoulder and no cars, save one maintenance vehicle​ which we passed. The first part of Stage road was a lot of fun with a couple of short climbs and fun descents. Landing in Pescadero was a pleasant surprise. The market there, the first control point, had very friendly staff and OMG-amazing deli sandwiches and home-baked bread and pastries. I ordered half a roast beef sandwich and an olallieberry scone, both delicious. I was filled by half of each so I stuffed the rest in my jacket pockets for later. South of Pescadero there's more off-the-beaten-track windy roads for about 8 miles where you meet back up with the coast highway. Tailwinds(!) were fantastic and steady all the way to Santa Cruz. My brother kills it on the flats - I can barely keep up with him - so we made really good time on this leg. We still weren't as fast as the pelicans riding the ridge lift South, though. The next control point was the Ugly Mug cafe in Soquel. As I walked into the cafe the man behind the counter said: "You look like the type that needs a receipt!" - ha! They let us bring the bikes into the warm cafe with us and we relaxed, warmed up and tried to prepare for the big climb to come. Kudos to the Ugly Mug for their bike-friendly attitude - they even have a "bike box" with new tubes and repair kits - looked like they were free but I didn't ask. There are, however, two free reflective ankle bands on top of the towel dispenser in the bathroom - I forgot them there when changing out of my leg warmers - free to the next lucky rando that can fit through the skinny door. ​At about mile 90 the real climbing begins. Wow, was it really only 1,500 feet!? It sure felt like more than that. My legs were shaky at the beginning of the climb from the first 90 miles and the Ugly Mug espresso. The rest of my sandwich settled me down (pickles FTW!) and once the blood made it to my legs I settled into a nice climbing pace. The climb seemed to go on a long time, maybe it was all the traffic. ​The descent to Lexington Reservoir was a blast - we didn't see any cars until we were at the reservoir. The climbing and the rollers around the lake were taking their toll on my brother (ok, me too) so we stopped for a while and watched the boats on the lake for a while until the sun started dipping behind the mountains. We carefully descended the mile-or-so of dirt trail from the lake to Los Gatos. A quick stop at Mikes Bikes and I had reflective ankle bands again. The rest of the ride to Mountain View was pretty uneventful; mostly riding grided streets with bike lanes through silicon valley suburbia. The finish control was at a 7-Eleven but in the same strip mall there was a Mexican Bakery with a long line of customers. So we finished the ride with delicious pan dulce! There's a CalTrain station about a mile from the finish control and we lucked out and arrived about 5 minutes before the next Northbound train arrived which took us back home to San Francisco.